Mine is an almond milk cappuccino.
When I first stopped drinking cow's milk around 4 years ago, I had the option of soy or nothing. Now, with the plant-based milk industry thriving, my options are becoming broader. I used to hear "Sorry, we only have skim-milk," and now it's more along the lines of "Would you like soy, almond, macadamia, cashew or oat milk?". This abundance of choice means that I also need to know about which type of milk I'm choosing - it's taste, protein value, environmental impact and calorie density. Now realistically, no one cares that much as it's just a bit of milk that goes in your coffee - but the knowledge doesn't hurt.
Before I get into my comparison of the varieties of plant-based milks, I'll talk you through my choice of ditching dairy in the first place. This choice was comprised of three factors - ethics, environmental impact and health benefits.
Ethics
As you know, cow's produce milk - why? To feed their newborn calves. A female cow will only produce milk in these circumstances. So to produce milk in the dairy industry, each and every year each female cow is artificially impregnated against her will. Once she has given birth, her calf and her will usually be separated within the next 24 hours. This causes an immense amount of emotional distress for both the calf and its mother.
If the calf is a female, she will be raised as a part of the same cycle as her mother. If the calf is a male, he won't produce milk - these calves are known as 'bobby calves'. They will be slaughtered at a few days old, or grown out for a few more weeks to be sold as veal. We know this best, having adopted two bobby calves at a few weeks old, lovingly raising them since on our farm. See this blog post for more about that journey. The average life expectancy of a cow is around 25 years - in the dairy industry, males rarely make it to 6 months, and females around 4 years after which they are sent to slaughter when their milk production declines. This cruel but industry-standardised practise and constant cycle doesn't sit well with me, and is something I'd rather not take part in.
Environmental Impact
When I was in my last year of high school, we were required to write a 4,000 word report on a chosen project. I chose to investigate the sustainability of the dairy industry in western Victoria. What I found was a huge level of water consumption, pollution, pasture degradation, forest clearing and aridification of the land as a result of the farming. Not only this, but there is also the greenhouse emissions of the herds to be considered, which make up to 12% of emissions generated by the agricultural sector in Australia, as well as the resources used in the processing and transportation of the raw milk into various cheeses, creams and other dairy products.
Health benefits
In 2019, Canada eliminated dairy from the dietary guidelines. Not only that, they also removed 'meat', choosing to refer to this section as 'protein foods' consisting of both plant-based and animal-based proteins. They recommended 'choosing protein foods that come from plants more often.' This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the extent to which we have been 'hoodwinked' by dairy. "But what about calcium?" This is the single greatest marketing strategy employed - dairy has calcium, yes, but it also has saturated fat, red blood cells, pus and an unnecessary amount of hormones such as progesterone and estrogen. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) cites that:
"Milk and other dairy products are the top source of saturated fat in the American diet, contributing to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. Studies have also linked dairy to an increased risk of breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers."
"I'll get weak bones and be more prone to fractures," you say? Another study of more than 96,000 people found that the more milk men consumed as teenagers, the more bone fractures they experienced as adults. The 'benefits' of dairy can only be debunked again and again. Dairy is a huge industry, ranking as Australia's 3rd largest agricultural industry with a gross value of $4 billion (https://www.pwc.com.au/industry/agribusiness/assets/australian-dairy-industry-nov11.pdf). Needless to say they have their fingers in a lot of pies, including marketing and dietary guidelines that recommend dairy contrary to the research available.
You can ready more about how the get the calcium you need without dairy here.
Anyway, enough science. Why not give plant milks a try? With the variety available nowadays, there is no harm in seeing if a non-animal source of creamy goodness with your coffee might work for you. But where to start - it depends on what you care about; price, availability, taste, texture, environmental impact? To start, a comparison of the environmental impacts of the various milks available. Poore and Nemecek, 2018, calculated the environmental impacts of dairy milk against plant-substitutes. We see that oat milk is the least resource-intensive and thus the most sustainable, whereas almond milk has the highest water consumption and rice milk has the highest carbon emissions. Your choice depends on what's important to you.
A Nutritional Comparison
Some of you might care about the nutrition that comes with the milk. Here's another comparison:
So while oat milk is the most sustainable, it is also the highest calorie - if you care about those sorts of things. Pea milk seems to come across as the winner being low calorie and high protein with no sugar, however it doesn't always taste so great.
Speaking of taste, with plant-based milks, the brand makes a huge difference. Here are some of my recommendations based off my experiences within Australia.
Brand Recommendations
Almond milk
For Coffees: Milk Lab and Coles Homebrand Barista
Almond milk is difficult to froth, and being from Melbourne this is a really important factor. Milk Lab's take on almond milk is so so good, but it is also expensive and has a long list of additives. Coles' Barista take on their homebrand almond milk also froths up nicely, but without the price tag, which is about half of that of Milk Lab's. Both these brands have additives such as maltodextrin, sunflower oil, acidity regulators, sunflower lecithin, stabilisers and salt. Keep this in mind if it's a matter of importance to you, as more authentic almond milk is usually made with just almonds and water.
For other: Nutty Bruce and Coles Organic Homebrand
Coles has recently released a fantastic line of affordable plant milks for the everyday shopper. They've got organic soy, oat, macadamia, coconut and almond milk in the range. At around $2.50 a carton for some organic unsweetened almond milk, you might miss out on a little quality but in the long run it doesn't make such a huge difference. On the other hand, if you're a bit more of the expensive taste, Nutty Bruce's organic activated almond milk will hit the spot at around $4 - 5 a carton.
Soy milk
Let me introduce you to a veteran of the plant milks: Bonsoy - my first milky love. Expensive but so worth it, soy milk is an area where you don't want to compromise on quality with other, cheaper brands. And if you want to try something a little funkier and newer to the market, Happy Soy Boy is really having a moment.
Oat milk
Oat milk is another type of milk where it's really worth investing in better brands - namely, Oatly, a Swedish drink company established in 1990 who have nailed the recipe. Unsurprisingly it is their forte, being the porridge lovers that Scandinavians are. Oatly however also tends to be more expensive and a little more difficult to find. Head to Oatly's Oatfinder in search of your nearest stockist. They have a classic oat milk, accompanied by chocolate oat milk and barista oat milk - the perfect trio.
Pea milk
Pea milk is much, much less common. In fact, I've only ever known one brand that makes it, which is Australian's Own. As pea milk may not be the most attractive name, they've marketed it under 'Like Milk'. In all honesty, I'm not the biggest fan but thought I would give it the attention it deserve due to its great nutritional values. This brand can generally be found found in the longlife milk section in Coles, accompanying other brands such as the Coles homebrand organic plant milks.
Anyway, that's a wrap on my overview of all the different plant milks available out there. There's new ones appearing all the time, and it's definitely worth your time trying out an almond latte ... or a oat, macadamia, rice, pea or coconut cappuccino!
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